Spain and Portugal, when they were empire, exported language, culture and customs. And among other things, Bullfighting also. The tracks are still alive in several Latin American countries. But the surprise is that there are other traces, in this case dead, in surprising places. Where imagine? For, eg, in Africa.
Almost 15 years, walking the old streets of Stone Town Zanzibar, I came across an old photo shop in which a young man selling black and white reproductions of the images that his father had taken over the years 40 and 50 of the twentieth century, before the independence of the island. And ojeándolas, I found one that looked a zebu bull harassing a man who laughed awkwardly with a kind of coarse cloak.
Maputo paced and, suddenly, I ran into a bullring fledged, the Monumental de Maputo, raised in the days when the city was the capital of the Portuguese colony
Informed as I can and, apparently, until the end of the eighties was fought in Zanzibar and the neighboring island of Pemba. There was no bullring in any premises, nor bulls were sacrificed, animals were not fighting for a race like the Spanish or Portuguese. The cattle belonged to the species of zebu, an animal with a high hump of Asian origin. They were bullied and played with a little in the style of the Portuguese "forçados". I guess the usual would lead to the two islands of the Indian settlers ancient Lusitanian, as Portugal extended his dominions along the coast and the archipelagos of Tanzania centuries ago.
In Zanzibar, the cattle belonged to the species of zebu, an animal with a high hump of Asian origin. They were bullied and played with a little in the style of the Portuguese "forçados"
A few years later, paced Maputo (capital Mozambique) and, suddenly, I ran into a bullring fledged, the Monumental de Maputo, raised in the days when the city was the capital of the Portuguese colony. The front was badly damaged and the ring was used to install a Sunday market. In some of the units had been installed enclosure small businesses, one auto repair. And the old toriles were the seat of an evangelical sect. Later rummaging in libraries, I discovered that there had acted great bullfighters of the twenties and 30 (always the twentieth century), among others Marcial Lalanda and Machaquito.
The bullpen was the former home of an evangelical sect. There they had acted great bullfighters as Marcial Lalande and Machaquito
But the place that caught my attention was that of Oran. It dates from the days of French colonization, when a major Spanish colony, larger than the gala- resided in the city. Built on a solid stone masonry clear, is a magnificent building. No longer used since independence (years 60), but curiously now serves as the football field in the neighborhood chavalería.
So it's the only football field round the world. I know.
